Once there was tribe near Boambee. The strongest warrior was Gwanda. He could always provide food for the tribe. He had a white crest in his hair. Every day the children looked out to see if Gwanda was coming.

They always said: "Look! There's Gwanda! Coming home with a big feast!"

They could always see the kangaroo, snake and goanna on his back.

He got old. One day he died and everyone started crying and crying and crying and more crying.

The chief said: "Enough! Go down to the beach and have some fun."

When they were playing at the beach, one little boy looked out at sea.

He said: "Look! There's Gwanda!"

Everyone looked out to sea and saw a 10-foot dolphin with a white crest in the middle of his forehead. Gwanda the 10-foot dolphin taught all the other dolphins to round up the fish on the beach.

Everyone started jumping for joy. One of the elders nearly fell over.

The dolphins made the fish come on the beach. The tribe had a big feast that night.

From that day on they always looked out for Gwanda. Thanks to Gwanda they never went hungry again.

Gwanda was written by Lillian Dellar and is used with permission. Lillian, Year 3, won the story section of the NSW DPI contest to name its newest patrol boat in the Northern Region in 2001.